Fewer than one in five Pennsylvanians think the federal government in Washington, or
the state government in Harrisburg, does the right thing almost all or most of the time.

"Sen. Arlen Specter seems to be having a good winter politically. He is back ahead of
Republican Pat Toomey after having been essentially tied with him since last summer, and there
remains no evidence that his primary challenger, Congressman Joe Sestak, has made much
progress as we get within three months of the May primary," said Peter Brown, assistant director
of the Quinnipiac University Polling Institute. "Specter's lead over Toomey is built upon a 52 - 36
percent margin among women voters, while Toomey has a small 49 - 46 percent lead among
men, an indication that the gender gap remains alive and well.

"Specter's edge is that he is so much better known than his challengers at this point. Only
11 percent of voters say they don't know enough about him to form an opinion," said Brown,
"while 74 percent of voters including 73 percent of Democrats say Sestak is too unfamiliar for
them to have an opinion."

"Toomey remains unfamiliar to 65 percent of voters. Toomey has eight months to close
that gap, but Sestak has a much shorter timeline, given the May 18 primary," Brown added.

Among Democrats who have some opinion of both Specter and Sestak, Sestak leads
54 - 37 percent.

Although he was a Republican until last April, Democrats say 48 - 29 percent that
Specter more than Sestak shares their values.

President Obama's Approval

President Obama's job approval rating has been ever so slightly below 50 percent in
Pennsylvania since October. As is the case nationally, his biggest loss in support has come from
independent voters, who now disapprove of his job performance 51 - 42 percent, compared to a
narrow 47 - 45 percent disapproval December 18.

Voter anger is apparent by how little trust there is that government will do what voters
consider to be the right thing. Only 1 percent of Keystone State voters say the federal
government does what is right almost all the time, and 10 percent say it does right "most of the
time," while 53 percent say "only some of the time" and 35 percent say "hardly ever."

The politicians in Harrisburg rate only slightly higher. They too get a 1 percent rating on
"almost all the time," but 17 percent say they do the right thing "most of the time;" 60 percent
say "only some of the time," and 21 percent say "hardly ever."

"Voters are slightly higher on the folks in Harrisburg than Washington D.C., but they are
really unhappy with both," said Brown.

From February 22 - 28, Quinnipiac University surveyed 1,452 Pennsylvania voters, with
a margin of error of +/- 2.6 percentage points. The survey includes 649 Democrats, with a margin
of error of +/- 3.9 percentage points.

The Quinnipiac University Poll, directed by Douglas Schwartz, Ph.D., conducts public
opinion surveys in Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Florida, Ohio and the
nation as a public service and for research.
For more data or RSS feed- http://www.quinnipiac.edu/polling.xml, call (203) 582-5201, or
follow us on Twitter.

2. (If registered Democrat) If the 2010 Democratic primary for United States
Senator were being held today and the candidates were Arlen Specter and Joe
Sestak, for whom would you vote?